“How could you not be a Packers fan in the 1960s?” Voigt said the other day. “In the old days, in the ’60s, you’d go to church, get your TV tray out and watch Ray Scott and Tony Canadeo do the games. Then you’d go out and play football in the side yard.”

Now, Voigt is a Vikings fan.

“Completely,” he said. “I’m converted to being a Vikings fan. The very first day (in 1970) I got drafted by the Vikings, I became a Vikings fan. That was 42 years ago.”

Voigt, 64, who lives in Apple Valley, was a Vikings tight end for 11 seasons after playing tailback and tight end at Wisconsin. He played in three Super Bowls. And for 17 seasons, he was a peerless Vikings radio analyst who could accurately call the team’s plays from the broadcast booth before the quarterback did in the huddle.

Voigt, who still watches the Vikings closely, sees the Sunday, Dec. 30, game against the Packers at the Metrodome as a tossup.

“I think the Vikings are feeling pretty good about themselves right now,” he said. “They’ve got the good, consistent kicker (rookie Blair Walsh) who’s been great. And compare him to the Packers, who have had all kinds of trouble with Mason Crosby.

“It may come down to who can kick a few field goals. And if you’ve got a guy who can kick ’em from over 50 yards, I think that’s a huge advantage.

“The Packers are on a roll, but the Vikings are playing their best football when it counts. After last week’s big victory (23-6) over Houston, it’s the time to play the Packers. But I would warn everybody that the Packers are for real.

“It’s going to be a heck of a game. This is what it’s all about — it comes down to this game.”

The Vikings, who have wins over San Francisco, Chicago and Houston among their nine victories, have proven they can compete with just about anybody.

“I haven’t seen Atlanta much, but Houston — did they look ordinary that day or what?” Voigt said. “After you see a quarter of that game, you go, ‘We’re as good as these guys.’ And San Francisco and the Bears … in other words, there’s no team that you go like, ‘Wow!’ So why not the Vikings?

“If you can get (Vikings QB Christian) Ponder to believe that he can manage the game — he doesn’t have to do much, just don’t turn the ball over, don’t make those poor decisions like he did against the Packers the first time (a 23-14 loss) when he’s running to the right and throws across his body to the left. And with Adrian Peterson … I like our chances.”

Former Gophers record-setting running back Darrell Thompson, 45, of Rochester, Minn., played for the Packers for five seasons (1990-1994). When he joined the Packers, he would hear from fans in Green Bay about how much they detested having to listen to the ear-piercing gjallarhorn sound throughout the Metrodome.

“It was a big deal,” Thompson said.

When Thompson played against the Vikings for the Packers at the Metrodome, he considered it almost a home game because he had starred at the Dome for the Gophers. Even the smell of the Dome’s locker room was familiar.

“Our Packers locker room at the Dome was the same locker room we had for the Gophers,” he said.

Thompson, a radio analyst for the Gophers, predicts for Sunday a “fun game, and if I were a betting man, I’d bet on the Packers,” he said. “But I think the Vikings are going to make it interesting. I’d say something like 27-23.”

Vikings Pro Bowl pass rusher Jared Allen on Adrian Peterson: “It’s fun to be on a team with a legend.”

Peterson, who needs 208 yards to break Eric Dickerson‘s NFL single-season rushing record of 2,105, said he would be “ecstatic” if he set the record at the Metrodome.

“To have family at home in a stadium where I broke a couple other records, it would be good to add another one and to do it in front of all the great fans in Minnesota,” he said. “God willing, it works out that way, with a ‘W’.”

Allen on Vikings linebacker Chad Greenway being overlooked for the Pro Bowl: “He’s a Pro Bowler in my book.”

Speaking of ecstatic,Jerome Felton, who is Peterson’s Pro Bowl blocking back, is in his first season with the Vikings but his fifth in the NFL. He couldn’t be more thrilled to play for Leslie Frazier.

“He’s the coach I’ve been looking to play for my whole career,” Felton said. “No. 1, he’s such a good person. And he’s consistent: He has a message and he believes in it, and that makes us believe in it. He’s hands down the best coach I’ve ever played for, and I look forward to playing for him for a long time.”

Felton, 26, can become an unrestricted free agent after the season. He is playing for $700,000 this year. He said he’s unaware if his agent has been approached by the Vikings about a new deal.

“I would love to finish my career here,” he said. “If I could come back here and help Adrian out with the history, that would be my ideal situation.”

Vikings backup running back Toby Gerhart, who is in his third season, asked what he has learned about the rivalry with Green Bay: “It’s a border war — people live and die for this game.”

Prayers are welcome for former Vikings starting guard Larry Bowie, 73, who resides in Mahtomedi and is in hospice care.

Departing Gophersquarterback/wideoutMarQueis Gray, who is 6 feet 5 and 250 pounds, will participate in a pro day for scouts this spring and would be happy to get a chance with any NFL team. His favorite is the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Ron Fowler, a 1971 University of St. Thomas grad, and 1976 St. John’s football standout Scott Becker, who played for John Gagliardi‘s national champions that year, are part of the new San Diego Padres ownership group.

DON’T PRINT THAT

Mike Grant, the Eden Prairie High football coaching legend who was considered the favorite to succeed the retired Gagliardi, spent a lot of time talking with his father, legendary Vikings coach Bud Grant, before withdrawing from consideration for the St. John’s job that went to Johnnies assistant Gary Fasching.

Mike Grant said he did not turn down the job.

Bud Grant, 85, retired as coach of the Vikings the first time when he was 56, before returning for two seasons, then retired for good in 1985.

Mike Grant is 55.

“My dad said he never looked back, and that (retiring) was the best thing he ever did,” Mike said.

Mike Grant and St. John’s administrators were in constant conversation about the Collegeville job.

But in the end, Mike said, “It was more about me and Eden Prairie than it was about St. John’s. Listen, (St. John’s) is a great job, and I was really impressed with the people up there, (search committee head) Joe Mucha and (athletics director) Tom Stock. We had a lot of back-and-forth conversations, and I’m sure the other candidates did, too.

“Timing is everything. As I looked into my retirement and looked into all my years at Eden Prairie and all the things that I had done there, all those things … there wasn’t one thing that (said) ‘this is why I wasn’t interested anymore.’ There were 10 things that added up to say, ‘You know what, the best thing is for me to stay at Eden Prairie.’

“I’m really happy about Gary. He’s a good guy. I played with him at St. John’s. If anybody deserves it … he’s been there a long time.”

Grant, who also is the AD at Eden Prairie, said he had thought about the St. John’s job for a long time.

“But I’ve got a great job, and I’ve got great kids, and what we’re focused on is trying to win three (state titles) in a row and win our ninth state title. So it’s ‘Where should I be working; where should I be doing this? When it got down to it, it wasn’t an easy decision to withdraw. But it was the honest decision.”

Grant figured the St. John’s job would take a five- to 10-year commitment.

“Life is short,” he said.

People in the know say that each finalist — Fasching, Grant and Kurt Ramler — was assured by administrators that he would get whatever resources he required to return the Johnnies to MIAC championship contenders again. That includes financial resources and salary.

Speaking of Ramler, it wouldn’t be surprising if the former St. John’s QB ends up as a candidate for the Luther College coaching job. The St. Olaf coaching job also is available.

Some Vikings season-ticket holders are making big profits by selling their Vikings-Packers seats for Sunday’s game at the Dome.

A local Notre Dame alum who put tickets for the Irish-Alabama national title game (Jan. 7 in Miami) on StubHub for $2,000 apiece will have to pay the secondary broker $300 for moving each of them.

OVERHEARD

Former Vikings tight end and broadcast analyst Stu Voigt on the likelihood that the Vikings would play the Packers in the playoffs next week in Green Bay if Minnesota wins Sunday: “You don’t want to play the same team two weeks in a row, especially if you’ve been beaten by them the week before.”

As you comment, please be respectful of other commenters and other viewpoints. Our goal with article comments is to provide a space for civil, informative and constructive conversations. We reserve the right to remove any comment we deem to be defamatory, rude, insulting to others, hateful, off-topic or reckless to the community. See our full terms of use here.

More in Sports

Nate Mason rolled down his sock and pulled up the cuff of his compression pants to reveal a big bruise on his right shin during pregame warmups Wednesday at Williams Arena. The blue mark — from being tripped late in Monday’s overtime loss to rival Wisconsin — was the latest hurdle heading into the senior guard’s final game at the...

FORT MYERS, Fla. — The final season of the franchise-record contract the Minnesota Twins gave Joe Mauer has begun, bringing with it the inevitable questions about his future. For now, before any such decisions must be made by the front office or the soon-to-be-35-year-old first baseman, Mauer has found himself in a reflective mood. He has started his 17th major...

There weren’t many positives to pull out of the Timberwolves’ home loss to Houston in the days leading up to the all-star break, the exception being the play of Minnesota’s starting point guard. Jeff Teague finished with 25 points, eight assists and five rebounds while taking 15 shots from the field. He was assertive but not selfish, a trademark of...

Safety Ken Handy-Holly has made a decision to leave the Gophers football team, a school spokesman said. The freshman from Jackson, Ala., had 12 tackles, a fumble recovery and a forced fumble in eight games last season. He had his redshirt removed after Antoine Winfield Jr., was injured in the Big Ten opener against Maryland on Sept. 30. Handy-Holly was rated...

Red Wing’s Taylor Heise had a high school hockey career for the books. The Gophers commit netted 67 goals this season and has more than 200 for her career. But she couldn’t get much of anything going in Wednesday’s Class A quarterfinal against Proctor/Hermantown, and neither could her teammates. The unseeded Mirage suffocated third-seeded Red Wing with physical play and...